Friday 14th April – Around Tokyo

We have a guide today to take us to the main places around Tokyo, we met in reception at about 8.45 then set off for our day out. First stop was the tourist information at Asakusa as this has an observation deck that provides great views over the city. We then went to Ueno station so that we could convert our vouchers into rail tickets and also book the seats on the trains, this actually took almost and hour but it was lucky that the guide was with us as she joined the next queue as we were getting near to the front of the one we were in! Once we had sorted this out we set off for Ueno park which still has some of the cherry blossom on the trees, it was like walking through the snow as we walked under the trees. On the main route through the park there are markings on the road like market stalls but this is actually where families can come and party during the blossom season. In the park we visited the Buddhist Pagoda, Tosho-gu shrine, Kiymo-mizu hall and the Gojo shrine we stopped in the old town for a coffee in a traditional coffee shop where we sat on the floor. This was a very peaceful area and we walked from here through the Aoyama Cemetery which also also full of cherry blossom trees, again this is a very peaceful place which we walked round visiting the temple then by way of complete contrast we went to Akihbara which is the electronic district where you can buy anything you need to build your own computer, from resistors to valves- glass ones, it was fascinating although really strange that In such a modern city they had something so retro! Outside of this market area is Electric town which is full of shops selling ‘all things cartoon’ from games to costumes we went round a few shops and to be honest didn’t recognise a single cartoon character but they were certainly selling well. After all this we decided it was time for lunch so we found a really nice restaurant that sold ‘skewered chicken’ which came with a bed of rice. This was really nice then it was back onto the metro to go to Meiji Jingu shrine which belongs to the imperial palace and is currently being refurbished but all the same the grounds are really impressive, a forest has been planted and no human is allowed in for 150 years to let it grow naturally and mature without human intervention. On the 100 year anniversary they let a few scientists go in to photograph the area but other than that it has been left alone, when the scientists finished documenting it they identified a couple of plant / insects that it was thought had become extinct so this is obviously a positive step. The walk back out of the park passed the sake barrels which are donated by the companies at the start of each year and represent the best of the sake in Japan. Our final walk was up the main shopping street to the station then back to the hotel after a long but great day. After we said goodbye to the guide we dropped our bags back in the room then went and got ourselves a well earned beer. This actually turned into a few beers so we decided to go back to the same restaurant as last night where we have another great meal then back to the hotel for a coffee and bed before starting again tomorrow.